Seasteading

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Rendering of Andras Gyorfi's "The Swimming City", a modular island AndrasGyorfi.jpg
Rendering of András Győrfi's "The Swimming City", a modular island

Seasteading is the creation of permanent dwellings in international waters, so-called seasteads, that are independent of established governments. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign state. Proposed structures have included modified cruise ships, refitted oil platforms, and custom-built floating islands. [1]

Contents

Some proponents say seasteads can "provide the means for rapid innovation in voluntary governance and reverse environmental damage to our oceans ... and foster entrepreneurship." [2] Some critics fear seasteads may function more as a refuge for the wealthy to avoid taxes or other obligations. [3]

While seasteading may guarantee some freedom from unwanted rules, the high seas are regulated internationally through bodies of admiralty law and law of the sea. [4]

The term seasteading is a blend of sea and homesteading , and dates back to the 1960s. [5]

History

Background

Past Hong Kong Yau Ma Tei shelter of house boats for Tanka people typhoon refugees. Hong Kong (27971979830).jpg
Past Hong Kong Yau Ma Tei shelter of house boats for Tanka people typhoon refugees.

Nomadic ocean life has been practiced for millennia by so-called sea nomad peoples, particularly around Southeast Asia. [7]

Venice, while built on stilts, has been identified as an early example of seasteading, not only as a long standing maritime settlement, but also as the center of the historic independent state of the Republic of Venice. Santa Maria della Salute (50428075772).jpg
Venice, while built on stilts, has been identified as an early example of seasteading, not only as a long standing maritime settlement, but also as the center of the historic independent state of the Republic of Venice.

Venice, while built on stilts, like similar settlements to its North, East or South, has been identified as an early example of seasteading, not only as a long standing maritime settlement, but also as the center of the historic independent state of the Republic of Venice. [8]

While not at sea the South American Uru peoples build floating settlements on floating islands, on Lake Titicaca. Uros-floating-islands-puno-peru-aerial.jpg
While not at sea the South American Uru peoples build floating settlements on floating islands, on Lake Titicaca.

Dormitory ships and oil platforms, which remain relatively stable when at sea, have been claimed as micronations after being abandoned.[ citation needed ]

The unrecognised, self-declared micronation of Sealand, at the bay of the Thames Estuary, based on an abandoned United Kingdom military sea fort. Sealand.jpg
The unrecognised, self-declared micronation of Sealand, at the bay of the Thames Estuary, based on an abandoned United Kingdom military sea fort.

Contemporary advocacy

Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut, [9] [10] Paolo Soleri [11] and companies such as Shimizu, Ocean Builders [12] and E. Kevin Schopfer. [13]

Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps , with several color plates illustrating his ideas.

A 1998 essay by Wayne Gramlich attracted the attention of Patri Friedman. [14] The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001. [15] Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008.

As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperation with an existing nation on prototype floating islands with legal semi-autonomy within the nation's protected territorial waters. On 13 January 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone" for a prototype, [16] [17] but later that year political changes driven by the French Polynesia presidential election led to the indefinite postponement of the project. [18] French Polynesia formally backed out of the project and permanently cut ties with Seasteading on 14 March 2018. [19]

The first single-family seastead was launched near Phuket, Thailand by Ocean Builders in March 2019. [20] [21] Two months later, the Thai Navy claimed the seastead was a threat to Thai sovereignty. [22] In 2019, Ocean Builders said it will be building again in Panama, with the support of government officials. [23] As of 2022, the project's status is uncertain.

In April 2019, the concept of floating cities as a way to cope with rising oceans was included in a presentation by the United Nations program UN-Habitat. As presented, they would be limited to sheltered waters. [24]

Specific proposals

The Seasteading Institute

Rendering of the Seasteading Institute's "ClubStead" Stead.jpg
Rendering of the Seasteading Institute's "ClubStead"

A nonprofit organization that has held several seasteading conferences and started The Floating City Project, which is proposed to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation. Attempts to reach an agreement with French Polynesia ended in 2018. [25]

Jounieh Floating Island project (JFIP)

A proposal to build a "floating island" with a luxury hotel in Jounieh north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, was stalled as of 2015 because of concerns from local officials about environmental and regulatory matters. [26] [27]

Blueseed

Architectural drawing of Blueseed "habitat units" Blueseed - Two Habitat Units 1.jpg
Architectural drawing of Blueseed "habitat units"

Blueseed was a company aiming to float a ship near Silicon Valley to serve as a visa-free startup community and entrepreneurial incubator. Blueseed founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija met when both were employees of The Seasteading Institute. The project planned to offer living and office space, high-speed Internet connectivity, and regular ferry service to the mainland [28] [29] but as of 2014 the project was "on hold", [30] and was later described as "failed" due to lack of investors and possible trouble with the Startup Visa Bill before the US Congress, which would make the concept obsolete.

Satoshi

A project which got as far as the purchase of a ship was MS Satoshi, purchased (as Pacific Dawn) in 2020 by Ocean Builders Central, to become a floating residence in the Gulf of Panama; however, after failing to obtain insurance for the proposed operation, the ship was resold in 2021 for cruise operations. [4]

Designs

A design by Anthony Ling AnthonyLing.jpg
A design by Anthony Ling

Historical predecessors and inspirations for seasteading include:

Cruise ships

Cruise ships are a proven technology, and address most of the challenges of living at sea for extended periods of time. However, they're typically optimized for travel and short-term stay, not for permanent residence in a single location.

Many proposals have been made for seasteading retrofits of cruise ships, although none have succeeded. Examples include:

Spar platform

Platform designs based on spar buoys, similar to oil platforms. [36] In this design, the platforms rest on spars in the shape of floating dumbbells, with the living area high above sea level. Building on spars in this fashion reduces the influence of wave action on the structure. [37]

Proposals include:

Modular island

There are numerous seastead designs based around interlocking modules made of reinforced concrete. [41] Reinforced concrete is used for floating docks, oil platforms, dams, and other marine structures.

Proposals include:

Monolithic island

A single, monolithic structure that is not intended to be expanded or connected to other modules.

Proposals include:

Criticism

Seasteading has been identified as "techno-colonialism", continuing settler colonialism at sea. [48] [49] Others argue that building a new government is much more difficult than advocates realize. [50] Also, seasteads would be at risk of political interference from nation states. [51]

On a logistical level, without access to culture, travel, restaurants, shopping, and other amenities, seasteads could be too remote and too uncomfortable to be attractive to potential long-term residents. [51] Building seasteads to withstand the rigors of the open ocean may prove uneconomical. [50] [51]

Seastead structures may blight ocean views, their industry or farming may deplete their environments, and their waste may pollute surrounding waters. Some critics believe that seasteads will exploit both residents and the nearby population. [50] Others fear that seasteads will mainly allow wealthy individuals to escape taxes, [3] or to harm mainstream society by ignoring other financial, environmental, and labor regulations. [3] [50]

Seasteading has been imagined many times in novels, including: Jules Verne's 1895 science-fiction book Propeller Island (L'Île à hélice) about an artificial island designed to travel the waters of the Pacific Ocean; Freezone, a seventeen square mile platform similar to Las Vegas positioned 100 miles north of Morocco in the Eclipse Trilogy , and the 2003 novel The Scar , which featured a floating city named Armada.

It has been a central concept in some movies, notably Waterworld (1995), and in TV series such as Stargate Atlantis , which had a complete floating city. A two-episode sequence of the show Silicon Valley featured a seastead positioned at the International Date Line . [52]

It is a common setting in video games, forming the premise of the Bioshock series, Brink , and Call of Duty: Black Ops II ; and in anime, such as Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet which takes place mainly on a traveling city made of an interconnected fleet of ocean ships.

A satirical take on seasteading in the context of human extinction is depicted in the Love, Death & Robots episode "Three Robots: Exit Strategies". [53] In the Archer episode "Cold Fusion", a villain attempts to melt the polar ice caps to promote his floating city development company.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micronation</span> Self-proclaimed political entity

A micronation is a political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from de facto states and quasi-states; they are also not considered to be autonomous or self-governing as they lack the legal basis in international law for their existence. The activities of micronations are almost always trivial enough to be ignored rather than disputed by the established nations whose territory they claim—referred to in micronationalism as macronations. Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals and other state-related items, some as a source of revenue. Motivations for the creation of micronations include theoretical experimentation, political protest, artistic expression, personal entertainment and the conduct of criminal activity. The study of micronationalism is known as micropatriology or micropatrology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil platform</span> Offshore ocean structure with oil drilling and related facilities

An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform linked by bridge to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Offshore construction</span> Installation of structures and facilities in a marine environment

Offshore construction is the installation of structures and facilities in a marine environment, usually for the production and transmission of electricity, oil, gas and other resources. It is also called maritime engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom Ship</span> Proposed floating city project

Freedom Ship is a floating city project initially proposed in the late 1990s by engineer Norman Nixon. The namesake of the project reflects the designer's vision of a mobile ocean colony, such that it is free from the property, municipal, or federal laws of any nation states. The project would not be a conventional ship, but rather a series of linked barges.

Floating city may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Atlantis</span>

Operation Atlantis was a project started by Werner Stiefel in 1968 aiming to establish a new, libertarian nation in international waters. The operation launched a ferro-cement boat on the Hudson River in December 1971 and piloted it to an area near the Bahamas. Upon reaching its destination, it sank in a hurricane. After a number of subsequent failed attempts to construct a habitable sea platform and achieve sovereign status, the project was abandoned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Very large floating structure</span> Artificial islands used as infrastructure in aquatic environments

Very large floating structures (VLFSs) or very large floating platforms (VLFPs) are artificial islands, which may be constructed to create floating airports, bridges, breakwaters, piers and docks, storage facilities, wind and solar power plants, for military purposes, to create industrial space, emergency bases, entertainment facilities, recreation parks, mobile offshore structures and even for habitation. Currently, several different concepts have been proposed for building floating cities or huge living complexes. Some units have been constructed and are presently in operation.

Subsea technology involves fully submerged ocean equipment, operations, or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term subsea is frequently used in connection with oceanography, marine or ocean engineering, ocean exploration, remotely operated vehicle (ROVs) autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), submarine communications or power cables, seafloor mineral mining, oil and gas, and offshore wind power.

Jurisdictional arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of discrepancies between competing legal jurisdictions. It takes its name from arbitrage, the practice in finance of purchasing a good at a lower price in one market and selling it at a higher price in another. Just as in financial arbitrage, the attractiveness of jurisdiction arbitrage depends largely on its transaction costs, here the costs of switching legal service providers from one government to another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patri Friedman</span> American libertarian activist and theorist of political economy

Patri Friedman is an American libertarian, anarcho-capitalist, and theorist of political economy. He founded The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit that explores the creation of sovereign ocean colonies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Hastings</span> American businessman(born 1969)

Sean Hastings is an entrepreneur, cypherpunk author, and security expert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Quirk</span>

Joe Quirk is an American author originally from Westfield, New Jersey. His latest book is Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians. Quirk is also president of the non-profit Seasteading Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean colonization</span> Type of ocean claim

Ocean colonization is the exploitation, settlement or territorial claim of the ocean and the oceanic crust.

Blueseed is a Palo Alto, California-based startup accelerator. It began as a seasteading venture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Marty</span> American entrepreneur

Max Marty is an entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, who co-founded the seed accelerator project Blueseed with Dario Mutabdzija and Dan Dascalescu. He was previously Director of Business Strategy at The Seasteading Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Dascalescu</span>

Dan Dăscălescu is a Romanian-American entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, who co-founded the ship-based seed accelerator project Blueseed in an attempt to allow entrepreneurs to start companies near Silicon Valley without US visa restrictions. He is also a public speaker and former software engineer at Google and Yahoo! and ambassador for The Seasteading Institute, a think tank researching ocean communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dario Mutabdzija</span>

Dario Mutabdzija is an American entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, who co-founded the seed accelerator project Blueseed. He was previously Director of Legal Strategy at The Seasteading Institute. He is now head of business development at Israeli startup PayKey.

Ocean development refers to the establishing of human activities at sea and use of the ocean, as well as its governance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Seasteading Institute</span> Non-profit organization

The Seasteading Institute(TSI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed to facilitate the establishment of autonomous, mobile communities on seaborne platforms operating in international waters (a proposed practice called seasteading). It was founded by Wayne Gramlich and Patri Friedman on April 15, 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ephemerisle</span> Festival on the Sacramento Delta

Ephemerisle is an annual week-long gathering every July on the water in the Sacramento Delta of California, United States.

References

  1. ↑ Mangu-Ward, Katherine (28 April 2008). "Homesteading on the High Seas: Floating Burning Man, "jurisdictional arbitrage," and other adventures in anarchism". Reason Magazine. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
  2. ↑ Seasteading.org: Why Steastead?
  3. 1 2 3 Wong, Julia Carrie (2 January 2017). "Seasteading: tech leaders' plans for floating city trouble French Polynesians". The Guardian .
  4. 1 2 Elmhirst, Sophie (7 September 2021). "The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world's first cryptocurrency cruise ship". The Guardian.
  5. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary: seasteading
  6. 1 2 3 "Sealand". The Journal of Wild Culture. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  7. ↑ "Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia: From the Past to the Present". NUS Press. 13 August 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  8. 1 2 Eveleth, Rose (15 April 2015). "'I rule my own ocean micronation'". BBC Home. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  9. ↑ "Vincent Callebaut Architect Lilypad". callebaut.org.
  10. ↑ "LILYPAD feature". archinect.com.
  11. ↑ Rose, Steve (25 August 2008). "The man who saw the future". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  12. ↑ "Ocean Builders". Ocean Builders.
  13. ↑ "Floating cities oasis for the future". Meretdemeures.com.
  14. ↑ Fingleton, Eamonn (26 March 2010). "Seasteading: the great escape". Prospect Magazine. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  15. ↑ Gramlich, Wayne; Friedman, Patri (2002). "Getting Serious About SeaSteading". Andrew House. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  16. ↑ Carli, James (10 December 2016). "Oceantop Living in a Seastead – Realistic, Sustainable, and Coming Soon". Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  17. ↑ "French Polynesia signs first floating city deal". BBC News. 17 January 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  18. ↑ "The Seasteading Institute Projects". seasteading.org. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  19. ↑ Robinson, Melia. "An island nation that told a libertarian 'seasteading' group it could build a floating city has pulled out of the deal". Business Insider. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  20. ↑ "First Seastead in International Waters Now Occupied, Thanks to Bitcoin Wealth". Reason.com. 1 March 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  21. ↑ THE FIRST SEASTEADERS 4: Living the Life on YouTube
  22. ↑ "Seasteading couple charged as Thai navy boards floating home". ABC News. 21 April 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  23. ↑ "Ocean builders is moving forward to a new location". Mailchi.
  24. ↑ "Floating cities could ease global housing crunch, says UN". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019.
  25. ↑ RNZ: "French Polynesia sinks floating island project" 3028
  26. ↑ Middle East Eye: "Authorities block floating island"
  27. ↑ Report about project on MTV Lebanon television (in Arabic)
  28. ↑ Lee, Timothy (29 November 2011). "Startup hopes to hack the immigration system with a floating incubator". Ars Technica. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  29. ↑ Donald, Brooke (13 December 2011). "Blueseed Startup Incubator Could Sail Past Immigration Law". Wired. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  30. ↑ "Startup Ducks Immigration Law With Googleplex of the Sea". 26 October 2015.
  31. ↑ "Explorers in the Valley still charting new territory". The Irish Times. 19 September 2008.
  32. ↑ Erichsen, Kirk (22 August 2024), Venice – The Seasteading Prototype , retrieved 13 November 2024
  33. ↑ "Live, Work and Play on a Residential Cruise Ship". PRWeb. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  34. ↑ Donald, Brooke (16 December 2011). "Blueseed Startup Sees Entrepreneur-Ship as Visa Solution for Silicon Valley". Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  35. ↑ "World's first floating city back on course". NY Daily News. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  36. ↑ McCullagh, Declan (2 February 2009). "Next Frontier: "Seasteading" The Oceans". CBS News. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  37. ↑ Gramlich, Wayne; Friedman, Patri; Houser, Andrew (2002–2004). "Seasteading". seasteading.org. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
  38. ↑ "ClubStead". seasteading.org. 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  39. ↑ "Oil Platforms Transformed into Sustainable Seascrapers- eVolo – Architecture Magazine". evolo.us.
  40. ↑ "Ocean Builders" . Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  41. ↑ "Apply Seasteading Concrete Shell Structures – The Seasteading Institute". The Seasteading Institute. Archived from the original on 10 July 2010.
  42. ↑ "Floating City Project | The Seasteading Institute". www.seasteading.org. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  43. ↑ "Oceanscraper- eVolo – Architecture Magazine". evolo.us.
  44. ↑ "Floating City concept by AT Design Office features underwater roads". Dezeen. 13 May 2014.
  45. ↑ Freedomhaven.org
  46. ↑ "Seascraper – Floating City – eVolo – Architecture Magazine". evolo.us.
  47. ↑ Raj, Ajai (14 June 2014). "A SPACESHIP FOR THE SEA". Popular Science. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  48. ↑ Veracini, Lorenzo (2015). The Settler Colonial Present. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi:10.1057/9781137372475. ISBN   978-1-137-39404-0.
  49. ↑ Hughes, Tristan (5 May 2024). "The political theory of techno-colonialism". European Journal of Political Theory. doi:10.1177/14748851241249819. ISSN   1474-8851.
  50. 1 2 3 4 Denuccio, Kyle. "Silicon Valley Is Letting Go of Its Techie Island Fantasies". WIRED. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  51. 1 2 3 "Cities on the Ocean". The Economist. 3 December 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  52. ↑ Quirk, Joe (13 May 2014). "Hit HBO Show Silicon Valley Climaxes with Seastead Cliffhanger". The Seasteading Institute. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  53. ↑ Flagg, Spencer (23 May 2022). "Love, Death, Robots & Seasteading!". The Seasteading Institute. Retrieved 4 March 2024.

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